Descriptions

The purpose of this study was to identify if differences existed in perceived
barrier factors and perceived attitude factors toward distance education between faculty
and administrators in the decision stage and those in the implementation stage of distance
education technology adoption. Information was gathered from teaching faculty and
program leaders involved in agricultural education teacher preparation programs across
the United States during the 1999-2000 academic year.
The barrier statements were reduced to nine barrier factors and the attitude
statements were reduced to five attitude factors through Principal Components Analysis.
Respondents were grouped into the decision stage or the implementation stage of distance
education technology adoption according to Rogers' (1995) innovation-decision process.
Statistically significant differences existed for various technology types between the
groups for both barrier factor scores and attitude factor scores.
The following conclusions were formulated from this study: (a) a majority of the
participants were in the decision stage of the innovation-decision process for distance
education technology adoption; (b) on-line delivery of courses was the distance education
technology most respondents were currently using or planning to use; (c) distance
education was not a major factor helping to meet program level goals; (d) training
opportunities were available for faculty who teach using distance education; (e) the
majority of the population indicated they were not adequately supported by the
department to teach using distance education technologies; (f) participants were planning
to have resources available for students taking courses via distance education
technologies, yet were noticeably indecisive for some resources; (g) cost barriers, course
quality, student contact, and equipment concerns were considered barriers for a majority
of the respondents; (h) each type of distance education technology had barrier factors that
showed significant differences between participants in the decision stage and those in the
implementation stage; (i) overall the respondents' attitudes were favorable to distance
education, but significant differences in attitude factor scores were evident between
deciders and implementers when viewed by type of distance education technology; (j) all
but one of the barrier factor scores were considered reliable, and (k) all of the attitude
factor scores were considered reliable.